Simmonds sets new world record on way to gold medal

Ellie Simmonds shaved five seconds off the S6 400m  world record on her way to retaining her freestyle title.

The 17-year-old clocked  a time of five minutes 19.17 seconds on her way to glory, cheered on by the 17,000 spectators rammed in the aquatics centre.

“I just wanted to go out there and retain my title and win a gold medal,” said Simmonds.

“My coach said I was capable of a 5:19 race but I wasn’t thinking about that. I was quite nervous leading into it because Victoria has been in such good form leading into the Games.”

The medals kept on coming for Team GB as they continued their impressive work from the opening day, Neil Fachie and Barney Storey won gold in the blind and visually impaired 1km tamden time trial.

Barney, husband of Sarah who won gold on the opening day, ensured it was a paralympics to remember for the Storey household, as he piloted visually impaired partner Neil, clocking a world record time of one minute 01.351 seconds.

On the track, Hannah Cockroft won the first gold medal, the wheelchair athlete from Halifax clocked a time of 18.05 seconds to take the T34 100m title.

The gold medals continued on the track as sprinter Richard Whitehead won 200 metre gold in the T42 class.

The 36-year-old double amputee posted a time of 24.38 seconds to break his own world record.

“That was a good performance, I’ve trained hard for that.” Said Whitehead.

“I have an amazing team behind me. Today was about giving back a performance suitable for a GB vest,”

There was also a gold for Mark Colbourne in the 3km pursuit, twice breaking the world record in the heats and the final. And in the Equestrian as Natasha Baker won the grade II individual event.

The stunning display from the Paralympic GB team sit fourth in the medals table with 9 golds, 16 silvers and 11 bronze medals.

Sports staff